


A Life in Essos

by unburnttkhaleesi



Category: game of thrones
Genre: F/M, Jonerys, targlings, the fairytale ending we need
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-19
Updated: 2019-05-19
Packaged: 2020-03-08 03:28:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,565
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18886252
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/unburnttkhaleesi/pseuds/unburnttkhaleesi
Summary: When Jon receives a raven from someone he thought was long dead, he journeys across the narrow sea to see if it is true.





	A Life in Essos

**Author's Note:**

> Based off of the edit on tumblr  
> https://tandybowensdagger.tumblr.com/post/184790983697/game-of-thrones-alternate-ending-a-life-in-essos

When the last war ended those four years ago, Jon had fled back to Winterfell He never wanted the crown and he could remember telling Daenerys that over and over, but she had been so far gone by then. Her blue hues had been full of tears when she had realized he had betrayed her. Jon thinks now that he should have thought this over. In a span of a few weeks, she had lost everything she worked so hard on, people who she loved. Jon should have convinced her to stay in Winterfell and let not just the troops, but the dragons heal. He also remembered her whimper when Tyrion gave what they all thought to believe was the final blow. The “Why?” That she whimpered as she went lose in his arms. How Drogon screeched an unholy sound as he snarled at Jon, at that moment, Jon would have allowed for the dragon to kill him. The beast however had other plans, gingerly picking Dany up in in claws and flying away, but not before burning the Red Keep to ash. 

Tyrion sat upon a new throne now, Sansa as his queen and a little princess that had just been born. Jon however was at peace with this life. He would be named Warden of the North and rebuild the Watch. Jon was also sure that the Night’s Watch was that honorable force it was before. He stayed in solitude however, only to appear to help train the men and women who vowed to serve. 

Though tonight would be the night where the life that Jon settled upon would be challenged. A raven had come from him, he thought it had been news from Sansa or Arya, but how wrong he had been. The writing was that of a woman and how he knew that hand all to well. He read over the letter at least a dozen times and he still couldn’t process what he had read, so he looked over the parchment again, holding his breath:

Dearest Jon,

I’m and sure that you and all of Westeros thinks I am dead and I wish to stay that way to the people there, but I am writing to you to let you know that I am not and that I wish to ease my heart. The events at King’s Landing, left me alive and I truly think that you knew that you did. Drogon took me and flew me to safety, to the Summer Isles. The people there were kind to me, they made sure that I healed and Drogon, well he still kept an eye on me close by, but not too close to frighten the people. 

It was during the healing process where I found out that I was pregnant. Leading up to the long night, I had missed my moons blood, but I didn’t think anything of it. So these women who hired me to work in their shop allowed me to stay and helped me deliver two beautiful babies. A son and a daughter. They are named Laena and Rhaegar. They are beautiful children Jon, and they are so good and clever. I had never experienced so much joy in my life. Their sweet little faces always bring a warmth to my heart and I believe they are the reason why I am here today, why Drogon was so persistent on taking my body.

Though my life isn’t what it once was, I live as a commoner in Essos, in the city of Volantis and work as a merchant. Not a single soul knows who I am though, it’s funny to me since I once conquered this land. I guess chopping off your hair and wearing common clothes and time makes people forget. 

I am not writing to you to claim that our two children have a claim to the throne, or that I am returning to Westeros to take what is mine because that Daenerys is no longer. I am writing you because of our children. They are three years old now, Jon and every day they ask me about their father. They deserve to know you and you deserve to know them. It would mean the world to me if you came to meet them. However I can understand if and why you wouldn’t, but I wish you could look past what happened between us. If you do want to find us, travel to Volantis and from there, enter the oldest part of town. There is a house there, made of stone with a red door and a lemon tree in front it. You’ll probably see this mangy looking hound that the children insisted on keeping and a dragon carved in the bark of the tree. I hope that you can find it in your heart to see us. It would mean the world to them and me.

-Yours, Dany

Bran confirmed Daenerys’ claim, that Jon was in fact a father of twins. Though Bran’s description was blunt. “Yes, she did birth bastard twins, one looks like a Northman, the other Looks like a Targaryen and yes, she is in hiding. I do believe her words are true and I do think you owe it to her to meet them.” He pauses. “Jon, I’ve seen it, your children are the dawn of a new age, they will do great deeds..”

He wants to scream at Bran, ask him why he didn’t tell him that Daenerys had survived and gave him children. If he had known, he would have married her in a heartbeat. The last thing Jon wanted was for a child to have the title of a bastard. So he doesn’t rest not once as he travels the road to King’s Landing. Once he reaches the city, he makes his way to the port, pays and enters a ship to Essos.

He doesn’t tell Sansa or Arya where he is going and he asks Bran not to mention anything to the women either. The last thing he wants is for Sansa to overreact and send forces to find Daenerys and her children. Jon however was nervous, how was he supposed to even greet Dany or their two children. The last time he saw Dany, she was dying in his arms because of the betrayal. His nerves have the best of him however and he doesn’t even really take in the beauty of a new nation until he has docked. 

Though in Volantis, he is a fish out of water. People must sense he was from Westeros, judging by the looks he had been getting. So he found himself in the market, buying fresh clothes to change into and keeping his eyes open for a silver head as he wandered along, but he had no luck. He only had the district she lived in and a description of the house, so for the whole day, he searched and searched. However as the sun began and Jon was ready to find a Inn, he spotted a small silver haired girl, running after a small dark haired boy.

Rhaegar, wait!” Her little voice called out, a mangy looking hound at the boys side. “Don’t tell Mama ‘bout the kitty!”

The boy stops, turns around and looks at the girl. “Laena, Mama said no more animals, so you can’t bring the kitty home!” He states, a small, chubby finger pointing at a ball of white fluff in the girls arms. “So you gotta leave it.”

The little girl begins to openly weep, the boy’s shoulders slouch down. “Please, don’t tell Mama, I just want a friend.” She uses the back of her hand to wipe away the tears streaming down her cheeks. Jon doesn’t know what came over to him, but when he heard their names and saw their faces, he knew who they were. So he walked over toward them, his legs feeling like lead as he trudged approached them. “Are you alright, Lass?”

She turns around and that is when he really sees her, a small version of his Dany. She was frightened, he could tell that much as she backed into her brother. “That’s a nice cat you’ve got there.”

Rhaegar’s eyes narrow and Jon felt like he was looking in the mirror. “We’re not supposed to talk to strangers.” He states and Jon smiles. “Mama said strangers are bad.”

“You have a strong voice on you.” Jon laughs. “And your mama sounds like a smart woman.”

“She is,” He reaches out and grabs his sisters hand. “C’mon, Laena, before Mama comes looking for us. She’ll be mad we ran off again.

The twins are too late though, because next thing the three of them know, a strong and loud voice is calling their names from a short distance behind him. “Rhaegar and Laena, what did I tell you about running off like that!” Now that voice was one that Jon knew all too well. “And you?” She was now talking to him, low and threatening. “I will give you till ten to move away from my children.”

Jon stood from the ground. It was almost like the world moved slowly as he turned around to see her. A scarf was wrapped around her hair, a large clay jug at her hip and dressed in common clothes. She didn’t look the the polished noble woman he had met those years ago, but was just as beautiful as he remembered her and she? She knew who he was as soon as she laid eyes on him.

“Jon?” The jug she was carrying crashes toward the ground, water and clay slipping onto the cobblestone as she lunges herself into his arms, the scarf came flying off. “You’re here.” She whispers, into his neck and he fully takes her into his arms, head on her shoulder, eyes shut. He had missed this so much. As long fingers thread into silver locks, he breathed her in. She had a comforting scent to her now, lavender, milk and still that bit of fire, but now that fire smell was that of a hearth. “I’ve missed you.” She breathes and Jon would have loved to savor this moment forever, yet he felt four pairs of eyes on him. He looks up to see Rhaegar and Laena watching them both and for a moment, he is brought back to that time up north when Drogon and Rhaegal stared him down when they embraced. “Oh,” She laughs tearfully, pulling away and then looking at the children. 

Daenerys steps back and stands by the twins. “Jon, this is Rhaegar” She says, fingers dancing in his dark curls. “And this is Laena.” She smiles warmly at them. “Say hello.” Dany encourages and the two give a small ‘hi’ before turning to look at their mother.

“Mama, she’s is trying to sneak that kitty into the house!” Rhaegar accuses and just like that Laena’s eyes well up. However, Daenerys just ruffles her son’s hair and then turns to look at her daughter.

“Is that the kitten sweetling?” She asks and 

Laena nods. “Well, she is lovely.” Dany coos and Laena gets a hint of a smile. “But you know how I feel about cats.”

The little girl pouts. “I named her though!”

“Really?” She asks as she strokes the kittens head. “And what is her name?”

“Ghost!” She decides. “She is quiet like one, and she scared Rhaegar!”

Daenerys looks back at Jon as she plays with the ends of Laena’s hair. “Can I tell you something? That man over there, he has a big dog named Ghost. I think we should invite him back to the house, so he could tell you about his companion, Ghost.”

Rhaegar furrowed his brow. “Mama, but you said no strangers.”

Dany takes her children’s hands. “He is no stranger, he is the one who I told you both about.’ 

They then look up at him, eyes still studying him, such wise eyes for such younglings. But it was brave Laena that slipped her hand from her mother’s and took his hand. “I’ll show you our garden, do you want to see it?”

Jon had to blink past the tears in his eyes. “That would be magnificent.” His voice raw, full of emotion. His daughter gives him a large smile before taking the lead back to their home.

The home Daenerys had made for herself wasn’t what he expected. It had the red door and the lemon tree out front, but when he walked in, he was greeted to a hearth, a table and some chairs, a large bed under stairs leading up to a smaller room. There were some toys sitting atop of an animal skin rug by the hearth and a lounge chair sitting by the back door. It was smaller than Daenerys had been used to, but by the looks of it, she took pride in the home. His breath was taken away when he saw the garden though, full of perfumed herbs and flowers. “Mama makes nice smelling oils and jams to sell at her market.” Laena explained. “She also makes the best lemon cakes.”

“Lemon cakes?” Jon repeated as he looked back over at Dany who was watching them at the door jam. 

“Mama said she got them from a far off place that is always cold. Giants live there you know.” Rhaegar states and Jon laughs. “Mama also says that you are our papa- is that true?”

Laena and Rhaegar both await his answer. Gods how Rhaegar looked as he did and Laena was her mother, though they both had dark eyes, like him. There was no doubt in his mind that they were his and part of him wishes he could have held them as babes. There was still time for that now, so he takes them into his arms and smiles. “Yeah, I’m your papa.”

The children don’t ask why he hasn’t been around, or where he has been. To be quite honest, the just seemed happy with his presence. They showed him their bedroom and Jon had to give a small smile at the drawings on parchment that hung from the walls. Pictures of crudely drawn dragons, wolves, giants and castles that made Jon quirk a smile as he looked them over one made with blue paints caught his eye. “What’s that?” He asked and Rhaegar climbed on the bed to take it down. 

“It’s from Mama’s stories.” He tells him. “The one about the Queen of Dragons and the King of Wolves. There is a wall built from ice that kept the ice army out. Maybe she’ll tell it to use again tonight if Laena eats her dinner.” Rhaegar adds, glaring at his little sister who put her nose up in the air in defiance. “It’s not a real story though, just a fairy tale. Mama said that.” 

It was then when Dany called them for dinner, it’s a stew with mulled cider and bread on the side. Jon had to admit that Dany could make nice meal, he guessed after years of having others do things for her that she wouldn’t know how to take care of herself, but he had been proven wrong. Her eyes are on him at dinner as the children try to talk over each other and bicker occasionally, but it was Jon who was full of questions. “How’d you know that I was back at Winterfell?” He asked her.

Daenerys breaks her bread, dips it into the broth. “People talk, Jon.” She tells him before taking a bite and then sipping her cider. “Everyone visits the market and share news about what is going on in different lands. I often hear about what is going on in Westeros from traders who are upset with Tyrion’s new tax laws.”

“A lot of people claim they are false rulers.” Jon tells her. “Not many people are fans of Sansa and Tyrion, but no one wants a war again so everyone just deals with it. It was wrong, how it all ended.”

Daenerys shrugs. “It’s in the past and I’m not upset about it anymore. Tyrion and Sansa can have that cursed title. I’ll stay here in my little home with my children and be happy for once. This life is what I truly wanted and I have it.”

“You ever think of going back?” He asks

“Never, this is my home.” She answers.

\-----

After dinner, Dany sends the tots out to play outback while she warms them a bath and Jon cleans up form dinner. They hadn’t had time to talk since she had seen him and neither of them know how to start a conversation. So Jon is the one to speak first. “So, I hear you tell the children stories about our history and cover them as fairy tales. Have they ever seen Drogon?” 

Daenerys laughs to herself as she adds a sweet smelling oil to the tub. “They met him when they were infants and he took to them quickly, loved them dearly. I think he sees them as his siblings.”

“Well, you are his mother.” Jon points out and then smirks. “So you are once again the mother of three dragons, that is unless-” He stops himself and dany shakes her head.

“Drogon is still alive and well,” She informs him. “He’ll sweep across the city every once and a while, scare the locals.”

Jon scrapes out the bowls and then shakes his head. “Do you ever miss it, flying?”

“Everyday.” Daenerys answers. “But like I said, that life is behind me.” Her smile is soft though, she’s not that women that he met, she really wasn’t. “Laena, Rhaegar, bath time!" She shouts and both children bound from the back yard, full of mud and dog in tow. “Though you can stop worrying about the past and help me now.” Dany says through a laugh as she smears mud out of her daughter’s face. “It takes an army to raise children, I swear.” 

After the two children are bathed and into their night clothes, Jon settles in front of the fire, Laena and Rhaegar climbing on his lap as Daenerys settles next to them. “Mama?” Laena inquires after the four of them are settled. “Sing to us, Mama!” Laena asks.

“Please?” Rhaegar begs. “Sing the song about Jenny.’

Dany laughs. “How about a story instead.”

Rhaegar yawns and Laena rubs her eyes. “Please, Mama?”

“I would like to hear it.” Jon shrugs and Dany rolls her eyes. “Never heard you sing before, actually didn’t know you could sing.”

“I can’t sing.” Dany deadpans but her children look at her with those large brow eyes and she sighs, damn that Stark trait. So she gives in because rather than four pleading eyes, there where six now. So she sighs and wets his lips. “Fine.”

“High in the halls of the kings who are gone, Jenny would dance with her ghosts. The ones she had lost and the ones she had found and the ones who had loved her the most. The ones who’d been gone for so very long, she couldn’t remember their names. They spun her around on damp old stones, spun away all her sorrows and pain. And she never wanted to leave, never wanted to leave, never wanted leave-”

Dany stopped when she noticed that sleep had taken over the two children. Her heart warmed at the sight of them nestled in their fathers arm and she wished that he would have been there during her sleepless nights when they were infants. She watches him for a moment, as he gazes down at their children and then laughs at his sudden panic. “What do I do?”

She shakes her head, he can’t be that clueless after having so many brothers and sisters. The room was silent all but for the crackle from the fire and the cricket songs outside their door. “Help me put them to bed?” She answers, more the a question and he nods as she stands up, lifting Rhaegar from his arms since Laena had tangled herself around Jon’s waist. “This way.” Dany whispers as Rhaegar murmurs in his sleep. She hums in his ear, a gentle hand running through his downy curls. They both trudge up the stairs toward their rooms and Dany gently lays Rhaegar on his bed, handing him a stuffed wolf and tucking his blankets up to his chin. She turns to tuck in Laena but Jon already had that covered, picking up her own stuffed toy, a bear. He looks at the toy for a moment and then at Dany.

“She has this fondness for bears and butterflies.” Dany explains quietly as Jon smiles softly and places it near Laena. “I sometimes think that Jorah and Missandei visit her in her sleep and I think your mother visits Rhaegar, he is obsessed with wolves and blue flowers.” Jon looks at her in such a way that it brings her back to when she sat at his bedside on her ship, it is the same look that he had given her when he named her his queen.

“Can we talk?” He asks her and Dany nods.

“Yes, but not in here, I don’t want to wake them.” Dany explains and Jon opens up the bedroom door to escort her out. Once they get downstairs Jon is quick with his words.

“You should come back with me.” He states and Daenerys is quickly taken off guard. “You and the children can come back with me to Winterfell and we can live a good life, make sure that they are properly educated. They’ll be around friends and family-”

Daenerys laughs sourly and shakes her head, putting a plate of table scraps down for the dog. “Your friends and family that wished me dead and that praise my death, I don’t think so.” She doesn’t mean for her bite to sound so harsh, put she knew exactly what would happen to her and her children if she sailed back with Jon. “Don’t you understand, everything I did over there- I killed thousands of innocents- they call me the Queen of Ashes, The Mad Queen and if I go back with you, they’ll hunt me down and kill me and I cannot let my children go motherless.”

“Dany” Jon breathes, grabbing her shoulders. “Dany listen to me, the death of those people? It wasn’t your fault-”

“No, Drogon felt my anger, he acted through me, I-” Daenerys argued. “I can’t-”

“Drogon was being controlled. When the bells rung, I saw you were headed to the keep and I had a feeling you were going towards Cersei and Dany, no one would blame you for burning that keep down to ash.” Jon takes a breath and searches her eyes. “But Euron had been up in that bell tower and he blew the last dragon horn Drogon was trying to fight it, he was but when he lit that belltower up, he also lit up wildfire that Cersei had connected to the stash your father had buried all those years ago. What happened in King’s Landing was a trap, you had nothing to worry about.” Jon confesses. “You are not the Queen of Ashes, or a Mad Queen and we should have realized that, I should have seen that. I-”

Daenerys steps from his grasp, eyes brimming with tears and chest heaving. “You mean, I didn’t-” She stumbles back and honestly, Jon doesn’t blame her shock. She is silent, looking into the fire as she tries her best for words that are failing her.

“When we found out, it was already too late, you were gone.” Jon explained. “So you have a home, you can go back to it.”

But Dany doesn’t react the way he thought she would. She shakes her head and smiles happily. “Jon, this is my home. Westeros was just where I was born and it isn’t for me. This home is where I belong, where our children belong and where you could belong if you give it a chance.”

Jon takes a deep breath and shakes his head. “But the North needs a ruler and it would give them a chance to see that the stories you tell are true.”

“They’ll also be called Dragonspawn, Bastards, Children of Madness. People in Westeros know what we are to one and other, your sister saw to that. If I step onto the shores of Westeros with two children that are not only born of wedlock, but Targaryens and true born heirs to the throne, they’ll kill us on site. I don’t expect you to stay here with us, I just wanted you to meet them and if you want to go back, you can. Though we won’t be joining you.” She states before pulling the blankets back on the bed. “Do you have a place to sleep tonight?” She asks gently and he shakes his head no. “Then would you like to stay here?”  
“If you’ll have me.” Jon answers and Dany smiles.

“Jon Snow, I will always have you.” She answers as she slips her dress off of her shoulders, Jon doesn’t look away, especially at the angry scar that curved just so slightly above her left breast. She is still stunning beautiful, added with the stretch marks on her belly from pregnancy. She pulls her night shift on and then glances at him. “I sometimes wonder how I survived it too, the women that found me, they said it was a miracle that the blade missed my heart by mere inches, that I lost a lot of blood, but I was lucky.” A smirk. “Seems like we have matching scars now though.”

He steps over to her and takes her hands with in his own. Jon leans down and presses her lips to his knuckles and apologies again. “Dany, I’m so sorry. I wish I could take it back.”

She removes her hands from his and cups his face, thumbs running along his cheekbones. “When I wrote to you, I thought you’d never show. I thought you’d be disgusted by me, by the thought of our children, but here you are, proving me wrong.”

And as he presses his lips to hers he whispers. “And here is where I’ll stay.”

Back in Westeros, no one quite knows about what happened to Jon Snow. Some say that he finally went mad with grief, others claim that he exiled himself beyond the wall. Some claim that he was dead and others say he just vanished in thin air. However, there is a story about a man living in Volantis, a man with raven hair who lives in a house with a red door and a lemon tree. A man who fits the description of Jon, but one can’t be sure. They say he joined the city guard while his pretty wife with silver hair that sells sweet smelling oils and lemon jam. It is said that in that stone home they tell tales to a set of twins, a boy with raven colored hair and a girl with silver locks. Some say that the woman is Daenerys Targaryen, who is heavy with a third child. Though as much as the people in Westeros whisper, Jon and Daenerys Targaryen stay in their humble home, living their lives peacefully.


End file.
